det, with a confidence in his uncle which nothing, except the ignorance of very tender years, could create. And, indeed, it is difficult to say what might have been the fate of the old domain, for the attorney, besides increasing the mortgages upon it, which, by reason of the possession of the title-deeds, he was enabled to manage, was in the habit of residing occasionally upon the estate, and having some of his carousals at the cost of the once well-stocked cellar. However, bravery has ever crowned the conduct of a British soldier with success and fortune; and when an Indian officer meets with these rewards, his first thoughts are fixed upon the means of returning home.

Lieutenant Axberry had not only valour to recommend him, he was also endowed by Nature with an unusual degree of sprightliness, and, by turning his pleasing manners to the best advantage, he gained the good will of his commanding officer, was placed upon the staff, and enjoyed as many lucrative appointments as his rank and youth were capable of. Fortune is never tired of assisting those whom she condescends to honour with her favours, so that we must not be surprised to hear that the Lieutenant became a captain at an early season, there having been both disease and slaughter in the camp. The same tide pursued the lucky Captain; he soon attained to a majority; and having contrived to save a few thousands, by a valuable, though rare economy, he felt that he was in a condition to indulge a longcherished hope of seeing once again his darling sister and his home. He had a slight remembrance too, faint as it was, of Flora Clanalpine. They had often played together; and if she admired the noble countenance and open behaviour of young Axberry, he was not the less pleased in his turn with the slender and sprightly child of Clanalpine Hall. But sixteen long years make wide ravages in the annals of mankind, so that if the officer ever cast a thought upon Flora, it was merely in tenderness towards the scenes of his childhood-some other lively fancy soon broke in, and dissolved the fugitive remembrance. Such a distinguished soldier found no difficulty in obtaining his furlough, and, which was still more gratifying, on the eve of his embarkation for England he received intelligence that the rank of Lieutenant Colonel had been conferred upon him.

Mr. Axberry, the attorney, was sitting at dinner a

few months before this event, in the great room at Honohan, surrounded by a party of select guests, when a letter was put into his hands, which gave him a momentary shudder. He commanded himself, notwithstanding, put the fearful paper into his pocket, and continued, though with diminished cheerfulness, to amuse his friends.

Of his nephew's return, Mr. Axberry entertained not the most distant anticipation. Every circumstance conspired to render that event next to impossible. The burning, baleful climate of the East, the excesses of luxury, the slowness of promotion, the rapid succession of wars, the gloomy prospects of Honohan, which no one better knew how to depict than the lawyer;—all these considerations placed endless seas and inaccessible mountains in his imagination, between Colonel Axberry (as we may now call him) and the green isle.

As soon as dinner was over, the attorney could not forbear breaking the seal of his letter. It was from India; and it contained the confounding news that his nephew was about to sail for England. In fact, Mr. Axberry knew that the vessel which was to bring over his formidable relation, must be on its voyage. A communication from India always struck the lawyer with a panic, but he had now a sufficient reason for the most serious fears. The late mortgages which he had effected upon the estate, already heavily laden, were totally void, for he had no more title to make them than his poor niece in the convent at Saint Omer. He was too good a tactician not to know the invalidity of these acts, and he dreaded Colonel Axberry, because it was plain enough that he would be obliged to refund all the money to the disappointed mortgagees. Thus conditioned, it is no wonder that Mr. Axberry was compelled for once to endure the rallying of his friends, who detected his fit of absence and dulness, and were willing to try every kind of raillery in order to gain the secrets of his letter. But the evening broke up without much advantage on either side; the attorney obstinately kept his secret to himself, and in turn he received a variety of jokes, some of which were the more caustic, as they came quite home to his feelings without being in the slightest degree premeditated. Mr. Axberry was not displeased to see the last of his guests take his candle and depart to the bed-chamber allotted to the last comer.

CHAPTER IV.

CHARING CROSS.

"I'll about,

And drive away the vulgar from the streets;
So do you too, where you perceive them thick."
Julius Cæsar.

NOTHING could restrain the impatience of Alfred Clanalpine. He longed to see the great metropolis; and watching an opportunity when he thought his presence could best be spared, he strolled out, without any immediate destination, and wandered he cared not whither. The varied scene around him, so different from the life he had been used to lead amongst the mountains, diverted his mind from the sorrows of his home, and he continued to advance, gazing at every thing, and meditating upon the busy tide, till he had nearly gained that grand rendezvous of human activity, Charing Cross. As yet, there was no New Police-now and then a stray street-keeper idled along the pavement, derided by the numerous boys he was wont to threaten, but there was no authority which could prevent, in a few minutes, the assembling of a multitude.

Alfred had with difficulty reached the square where the statue of Charles Stuart still calls to mind the talents of Le Sœur, when an enormous crowd, heaving up like the surges of the ocean, pressed closely at his heels. Startled, though not alarmed, (for he was not of a nature to fear,) he fell back, and mingled with the foremost rank, taking care to make the most urgent inquiries as to the intentions of the populace.

"Eh! what, don't you know?" said one of the north country; "we are going to hear Hoont !"

"Who is he, my friend?" said young Clanalpine. "Eh! dear-" returned the first speaker;-but be fore he could give the information he was collecting all his forces to bring forth, Alfred had turned away, and was discoursing with a well-dressed man, who had the appearance of a half-pay officer, and who distinctly told him all the virtues and capabilities of Orator Hunt.

66

And what is Mr. Hunt to tell us?" inquired the young traveller.

"Every thing," replied a shoemaker, who had over

heard the conversation;-"Economy, and political economy, and reform, and a great many other things besides."

Alfred viewed the mechanic with astonishment. He had been prepared to meet with strange things in London, but never expected to fall in with a man in a working apron who could speak of political economy; indeed, had he not been educated and informed in a very superior manner, the mechanic would have confounded him by the bare mention of the science.

"What else?" said he.

"Why, young gentleman," replied the shoemaker, "when you have got through political economy, you shall be free to ask what else.

"There will be something else, though," said a hoarse voice in the crowd. The speaker seemed to be a blacksmith: he was quite furious, and pushed himself along with an impatience which savoured of little less than absolute revolution. It was evident that some great public meeting was at hand, for the rush towards Charing Cross was almost simultaneous, and all eyes were turned eagerly towards that roomy street. A dense mass of heads now presented itself in every direction. All means of thoroughfare seemed at an end; now and then indeed, there was a loud cry of "Hui, hui,” and a hackney coach, or gentleman's carriage, dashed through the shrinking assemblage as well as the small space would allow. But the multitude were exceedingly disposed to dispute the right of way, and on one or two occasions they laid hold of the horses' bridles, and but for the interference of some active constables, would have turned the travellers back towards the road whence they came. The impatience of the mob being by no means inconsiderable, it was not a little strange to see two or three adventurers, who presumed, in the absence of the great expected chief, to harangue the throng. Mere imbecility however, soon silenced the foremost of them, his thoughts being too vast for utterance; and his tongue refused to perform the new office which had been forced upon it.

"You had better go and scold your wife," said a voice. "Sam Praters, I'll be arter you;" cried the speaker, seemingly delighted with the opportunity of giving up his unaccustomed vocation. But the other orator was

not to be disposed of so easily; perfectly assured in. proportion to his ignorance, and beyond imagination loquacious, he commenced a volley of declamation against abuses, in a strain which bade fair to outstrip all rival energies. He foamed at the mouth, gesticulated, stamped, and raved, and looked for nothing short of the most abundant conviction on the part of his hearers. But notwithstanding his furious exertions, he did not appear to be a favourite " Who's that? where's Hunt?" were the exclamations which burst forth amongst the crowd. "That's Atkins the shoemaker." Shouts of laughter ensued, and as the orator redoubled his energies and his rage, the amusement of the surrounding multitude increased.- "Pull him down, pull him down,' was the cry on all sides—“ No, hear him! hear him!" vociferated another group of idlers. "Every Englishman has a right to be heard."

Great applause followed the delivery of this sentiment, and a considerable struggle now took place between the two parties, the shoemaker's faction insisting that he should speak in peace; the other, and by far the greater number, being determined to silence him; whilst a well appointed phalanx of pickpockets, began to exercise their vocation, and ravaged the unresisting mob without mercy. It was in vain to attempt escaping from this tribe of Philistines; some were employed in singling out their victims, others in forming a defensive cordon against any attacks of the constables, whilst a third set were engaged in casual speculations, which lightened many a pocket, and brought, upon the whole, a useful return to the adventurers. The cry for constables was vociferated on all sides, and none more busy in propagating that clamour, than the booty-making gentry themselves; they at least bawled twice in proportion to the many honest voices around them.

"Take care of your pockets, gentlemen and ladies; take care of your pockets!" roared a very stout and personable individual, who wore the appearance of a most painful anxiety for the bystanders. But his private transactions upon this occasion were the most reckless and wholesale plunders, which he effected the more easily by means of his hypocritical vocation. Constables, however, there were, and indeed no small share of them, but either deterred by fear or some other cause,